('''Z103.5''') is a
Rhythmic/Dance Top 40 Radio Station that serves
Central Ontario and the
Greater Toronto Area in
Canada . Although they are licensed to
Orangeville , and still have a transmitter there, the station's studios are located in Toronto. The station is owned by
Evanov Communications . It fills the market's Top 40 niche and includes a certain degree of dance music in its playlists, similar to
CKOI-FM in
Montreal . The station can be heard as far south as
St. Catharines .
An application was made to the
Canadian Radio-television And Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a radio station to serve
Orangeville after the community felt it did not receive adequate warning after the area was struck by a tornado on May 31, 1985. CRTC approval was given for the station on
September 10 ,
1986 . The station's frequency allocation was moved from
Guelph to
Orangeville to allow for the service. CIDC was launched on
May 1 ,
1987 on 103.5
FM with an
ERP of 50,000
Watt s from a site located northwest of the town. The height of the hill (527.3 m / 1,730 ft) and tower (98.1 m / 322 ft) made the station antenna (0.6 m / 2 ft) higher above sea level than the
CN Tower .
On
September 28 ,
1994 , the CRTC approved the ownership transfer of Dufferin Communications from its shareholders to CKMW Radio Ltd., operator of Brampton multicultural station
CIAO (AM) . The station was branded ''Hot 103 dot 5'' in
1995 , playing only dance music. The station then began adding more
R&B and pop tracks to its Top 40/dance playlist in February,
1998 , and was renamed ''Hits 103.5''.
On
July 28 ,
2000 approval was given to relocate the transmitter site from 6 km west of
Orangeville town hall to 11 km east of
Orangeville town hall and decrease the stations power from 50,000
Watt s to 30,700
Watt s.
On
January 1 ,
2001 , the station was renamed in imitation of
New York station
Z100 and became known as ''Z103.5'' (pronounced "zee"), though they retained their CIDC call letters.
Until the summer of 2006, Z103.5 was the only radio station in Canada that played
Dance Music since
Energy 108 changed formats. It should be noted that it was the only
Top 40 station left in Toronto after
Kiss 92 became
Jack FM in 2003. For a brief period in 2001,
Foxy 88.5 also played dance music but poor ratings led it to switch to an
Oldies format.
In the summer of
2006 , Evanov launched a
New Station in
Halifax, Nova Scotia patterned after CIDC. It uses the Z103.5 moniker but features a different logo and slogan. In
Halifax Regional Municipality , this is the first station of its kind.
The station airs the
Syndicated Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 and
American Top 40 on the weekends.
From 5 a.m. - 9 a.m. weekdays, Z103.5 has ''Scott Fox & The Z103.5 Morning Show''.
Despite the decrease in dance music, the station's highest rated program continues to be ''
The Drive @ 5 Street Mix ''with
DJ Danny D . The show is mixed live entirely with
Vinyl . A similar show, ''
The Power Mix With DJ Spence Diamonds '', used to air three nights a week. The show, which features urban music, was cut back to one night in the fall of
2005 .
Z103.5 also had a weekly show on Sundays called the ''
Freestyle Frenzy '', hosted by Z103.5 veteran
Tony Monaco . It was solely a show of
Freestyle Music and mixes. It aired from June 4, 1995 to January 2004, then
Evanov Communications , who owns the station ,cancelled it and made the time slot available for regular programming, and soon to be part of
Ryan Seacrest's American Top 40 countdown.
The station annually hosts a number of live concert events. Past and present concerts include the Hot Rush (created in 1993, now Summer Rush), Euro-Freestyle Invasion (now Euro Invasion), and Partymania. Most of the concerts are sold-out because they are mostly filled with performances by dance artists that usually don't get much publicity. Interestingly, its sister station in Halifax also started holding a similar Summer Rush concert in 2007, usually around the same time as its Toronto sibling.
The station also hosts live-to-airs from various Toronto-area nightclubs three or four nights per week. Wednesdays have been from
Club Menage since 2002. Thursdays have been from
Sugar Daddy's and Fridays have been from
Metro Bar . Saturday nights has stabilized lately at
Distrikt , after a more than decade-long run at club Paparazzi came to an end, also in 2003. Sundays, it's the live to air partymix from
Afterlife Nightclub .
